big william, formed in 1998, are a guitar based rock/funk/soul/pop combo outfit hailing from Sheffield. There have been a couple of line up changes over the years but it is now... Jon Groves - Bass Tom Jones - Vocals & Guitar Russ Oakley - Drums Adam Whitaker - Guitars

Russ, Adam and Dave started practising/getting together for a jam in 1998. They started writing songs and managed to recruit a percussionist called Matt Mannion just in time for their debut gig in October 1999. Tom Jones was recruited in 2001 to take over the vocals from Adam and help write the songs. We played many gigs, including London, and venues in and around Sheffield. Eventually Dave Palmer left the band in 2002 mid way through recording the 'Don't Walk' album, and Jon Grove was brought in to replace him. Further highlights included playing the Cavern in Liverpool and appearing on BBC Radio Raw talent show in June 2003. Mat left the band in September 2003 leaving Russ, Adam, Tom and Jon. Life went on and a new 9 track album was written & recorded

Mainly around sheffield. We've played London, Doncaster and Liverpool before. We love playing live. The trouble is, the Sheffield scene is not really what we fit into.

It's a full spectrum from funk to rock. Some songs like "tonight" and "what you say and what you mean" are Soul/Funk (think the meters, curtis mayfield) through to "2 seconds behind" and "Northern Soulman" which are Rock/Funk/Blues (think RHCP, Led Zep) and through to songs like "Scissor Choice" and "Help Me Get Out" which border are more Rock. There are other songs and we like to think that each song has a different style and that no two songs are similar.

WMA downloads of live tracks and previous recordings are all available on our website www.bigwilliam.co.uk There's all the news, gigs etc and a message board for you to leave your comments/abuse on, but please, keep it clean will ya?